ABSTRACT
We are now in a position to examine the role of closure, and in particular linguistic closure, in determining power relations between individuals. Directed intervention, made possible through closure, enables individuals to alter the world in a desired manner, and thus to control their circumstances. It follows therefore that when a person adopts similar linguistic closures to another the person acquires the ability to intervene in a similar way. If the closures are effective their power over the world has been extended. It is also the case that at the same time the person’s behaviour has been influenced by another, and that as a result the other individual can be said to have power over the person in this respect. The same principle applies to groups of individuals and institutions. If a group of individuals is able to add to or alter the linguistic closures of other individuals or groups they change the personal space and sometimes institutional space within which the others operate. As a result the group of individuals change how the others are able to intervene, and have in this respect exercised power over them. It is for this reason that the imposition of linguistic closure between individuals or groups of individuals, be it overt or covert, welcomed or opposed, is at once an exercise of power.
